president, first lady and vice president joe biden all participating in service projects in the d.c. area today and calling on all americans to join community events across the country. molly henneberg is live in washington with more. >> molly: there are two parts of this day of service. it's a kickoff to the inauguration weekend and always way to celebrate a couple of days early dr. martin luther king day. president obama and his family went to an elementary school in washington to help with the school makeover project. here you see the president and mrs. obama looking at bookshelf. they talked about the importance of this day. >> this inauguration, we're going to be -- it's a symbol of how our democracy work and how we peacefully transfer power but it should be an affirmation we're all in this together. >> molly: the vice president and his family participated in the national day of service. they filled care packages for deployed servicemen and women. mr. biden says the troops overseas that we remember them. the area around the washington monument there were opportunities for people